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BD govt cuts

ADP for fiscal year

DHAKA: The Bangladeshi government has cut taka 5.7 billion ($142.5 million) off taka 115.3 billion ($2.882 billion) annual development programme (ADP) for fiscal year 1995-1996.

The Planning Commission of the country has taken the decision after a 3-day special meeting on April 15-17 revising the current ADP as the implementation of some projects faced serious uncertainty due to political unrest and shortage of external and internal resources, sources said on Saturday.

The ADP for 1995-1996 beginning last July 1 has been reduced by 20 percent, pruning a number of projects under 20 sectors financed both by external and internal resources, the sources said.

Under the revised annual development programme, of the total allocation, taka 70.7 billion ($1.767 billion) will be funded by domestic resources while taka 44.6 billion ($1.115 billion) will be financed by foreign aid.

The highest allocation of taka 80.6 billion ($2.015 billion) is for rural development and institutions.

The 1995-1996 ADP was originally approved by the former parliament last year. Following the dissolution of the 6th parliament and the resignation of the government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on March 30 this year, the country is now under the leadership of a caretaker government led by Chief Adviser Habibur Rahman with a main task of arranging next parliamentary elections.-Xinhua